Want to Improve Your Neck Skin?

During my 20’s and 30’s I lamented over things like my crow’s feet wrinkles and my complexion. These were things I could see in the mirror that were ageing me. I did my best to improve them over that decade, but they don’t seem to bother me nowadays. It is very interesting that humans can fix an undesirable aspect of themselves, then promptly forget it was ever there and start obsessing over the next apparent flaw.

Now in my 40’s, I’m currently doing this with my neck. I wish I’d noticed how good my neck was back in the day, but we humans seem to pay attention to the things we do not like and gloss over the good parts. So, I’ve been looking at ways to address my new apparent flaw, my neck.

PS- my patients in their 50’s and beyond look at my neck skin and think I’m crazy, but I jumped on the prevention bandwagon years ago and so here goes with my recommendations on how to improve your neck skin.

PPS- to keep my ageing in perspective I now try to notice the good parts in equal measure as the other parts.

1.      Sunscreen- the best anti-ageing medicine there is. I love tinted zinc sunscreens (Zinc to block the damaging UV and iron oxide to block high energy blue solar radiation which causes pigmentation) but beware getting the tint on your clothes if you’re using them on your neck

2.      Skincare- I use medical-grade skin care on my neck, especially vitamin A, to help build collagen

3.      DON’T SMOKE! DON’T SMOKE! DON’T SMOKE! DON’T SMOKE! DON’T SMOKE!

Enough said?

4.      Perfume- Did your grandma ever tell you to spray perfume at the sides of your neck? STOP- you may develop a problematic pigment condition called Poikiloderma of Civatte which is a photochemical reaction with the perfume and the sun and a real pain to treat.

5.      Laser- can be used to treat any brown blotches, red blotches and skin tags without much visible down time. Even crepey skin can be improved with resurfacing lasers, like the Fraxel Re:Pair albeit with a couple of weeks of down time

6.      Anti-wrinkle injections- for years I have been injecting my platysmal band muscles to release their pull and yank on the neck skin

7.      Dermal Filler- some people develop neck ring wrinkles even at a young age. These can be readily injected with dermal fillers to smooth the lines

8.      Injectable Moisturiser- If you’re OK with looking like a plucked chicken for a couple of days then a mixture of anti-wrinkle and watery fillers can be injected in over 2 treatments to help with crepey neck skin

9.      PDO threads- these things can go almost anywhere on the body and help to build collagen to firm and strengthen the skin. They’re great on necks but can give a good bruise!

10.  Surgery- Most of the patients at CCM want to do the best they can without going down this path but as the saying goes, “know your limits”, and so I occasionally need to refer to my surgical friends.